Gage Park

Gage Park is the 63rd of the 77 officially declared Chicago neighborhoods. The neighborhood lies to the city’s southwest side and occupies a total land area of 2.24 square miles (5.80 km2). The inspiration for the neighborhood’s name comes from the Gage family, who owned a lot of land in the region in the earlier days of its development.

Gage Park is mostly a working-class neighborhood; the average family earns $42,277. This median income is less than the Chicago average annual household income of $59,247. The Gage Park neighborhood features a park with the same name. It is a magnificent 160-acre park in Topeka and is one of its most popular attractions. Gage Park offers a range of activities to do and see for people of all ages.

Besides the famous park, the Gage Park neighborhood features some amazing dining opportunities for the locals. The residents are calm and friendly; the area has plenty of sidewalks, is within walking distance to restaurants and grocery stores, and is pet-friendly. 

Gage Park is also suitably situated for commuters. The neighborhood is located 10 miles (16 km) away from the downtown Chicago Loop. Traveling via subway would take the Gage Park residents 18 minutes to reach the city’s business hub. A direct subway runs from Adams/Wabash to Kedzie-Orange. It departs every five minutes for the convenience of the travelers.

Map

Gage Park is bordered on the north and south by 49th Street and 59th Street. Central Park Avenue lies on the west of the neighborhood, while Leavitt Street borders the Gage Park community from the east. The neighborhood is a part of 60609, 60629, 60632, and 60636 zip codes.

Population

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s August 2021 release shows that Gage Park has a total population of 39,540 people. 62.6% of this population consists of native Americans, while 37.4% of people have a foreign nationality.

According to the neighborhood veterans, Gage Park has rich Irish Catholic and Eastern European roots. Gage Park’s first residents were largely Irish and European, but during the 1960s and 1970s, the population of Hispanics and Latinos grew significantly. With the influx of many Hispanic families, the Gage Park neighborhood remains mainly catholic. Today, Gage Park is an ethnically rich community with non-natives occupying a larger share in population than the whites. 

The Gage Park neighborhood predominantly comprises Hispanics and Latinos (91.3%). Blacks are the second-largest racial sector of the community, constituting 4.0% of the population. Native Americans come third at 3.9%, following Asians at 0.6%. The remaining 0.1% population consists of people from other races and ethnicities.

Real Estate

The Gage Park neighborhood has a total of 10,353 households. 91.2% of these households are occupied, and 8.8% are vacant. Out of the occupied real estate, 54.7% of the property is inhabited by the owners, while renters are settled in 45.3% of the households. The average household size in Gage Park is 3.8 persons.

Bungalows are the most popular dwelling type in the Gage Park community. Between 1907 and the early 1930s, the rise and immense attractiveness of Chicago bungalow neighborhoods marked the development of the Gage Park area. During this time, tens of thousands of one-and-a-half-story brick bungalows were built in the city’s surrounding neighborhoods, paving the way for single-family homeownership. The unusual form of the Chicago bungalow established a unique form of Chicago urbanism. 

Even today, most of the houses in the neighborhood are Cape Cod-style brick bungalows featuring a large central chimney and a steep-pitched roof. In 2020, the National Register of Historic Places added the Gage Park Bungalow Historic District to the list. 

Gage Park’s real estate market is dominated by single-family detached housing units occupying a 49.4% share in the market. It is followed by two-unit houses that constitute 26.6% and three to the four-unit residential property making up 16.6% of the Gage Park real estate. 

The area’s residential houses have an average listed price of $235,000. These prices experienced a 9.3% hike compared to 2021 but are still lower than the Chicago median real estate price of $335,000.

Schools

The educational attainment rate in the Gage Park neighborhood is average. Around 42.0% of the total population has a high school diploma or equivalent. Around 32.2% of people have less than a high school diploma, while 13.8% attended some college but didn’t hold a degree. 

Coming to the tertiary educational levels, around 5.2% of the Gage Park residents have an Associate’s degree while 5.4% have an undergraduate degree. Only a small cut of the population (1.4%) comprises graduates and professional degree holders.

Nevertheless, the area has some top-ranked schools established to assist the local community. Various K-8 level and Chicago public high schools serve the Gage Park neighborhood. Other than that, the United Nations Organization (UNO) also operates charter schools like the Rufino Tamayo School and Jovita Idar School. 

Listed below are some of the highest-ranked educational institutions located in the Gage Park neighborhood:

1- Woodland Elementary Community School

Student population: 199 students in grades PK, K-6

Teacher-student ratio: 18-to-1

2- Owen Scholastic Academy

Student population: 278 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 19-to-1

3- Simpson Academy High School for Young Women

Student population: 33 students in grades 6 to 12

Teacher-student ratio: 3-to-1

4- Suder Montessori Elementary Magnet School

Student population: 335 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 14-to-1

5- Murray Language Academy

Student population: 462 students in grades K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 17-to-1

6- Frazier International Magnet School

Student population: 189 students in grades K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 13-to-1

7- Davis M. Magnet Elementary School

Student population: 208 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 16-to-1

8- Tonti Elementary School

Student population: 913 students in grades PK, K-5

Teacher-student ratio: 15-to-1

9- Morrill Elementary Math and Science School

Student population: 570 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 16-to-1

Crime Ratings

Gage Park lies in the District 008 of the Chicago Police Department. The neighborhood has a safety score of 47 and a safety range between 39 and 53. No murder cases were recorded from February 14th to 20th, 2022. However, 8 robbery cases were reported, and the locals filed 21 burglary reports to the local police station. Moreover, the Chicago Police Department received 21 theft and 26 motor vehicle theft reports from the Gage Park residents.

History

Gage Park was once part of the huge Illinois grassland that stretched to Chicago’s Southwest Side. In the 1840s, German farmers came there, and in 1865, the town of Lake was established, which was amalgamated into Chicago in 1889. Gage Park had only 30 wood frame cottages at the time; there were no paved streets and no public transportation system. 

However, between 1900 and 1910, the electric trolley service was extended to Western and Kedzie Streets, resulting in a construction boom. The Bartlett Realty Company built Marquette Manor in 1911, which served as a catalyst for subsequent neighborhood development. Western and Garfield Boulevards were built between 1905 and 1919, and residential and industrial growth exploded.

Christians tended to live in Chicago Lawn (also known as Marquette Park), while Roman Catholics lived in Gage Park. Many people traveled from Bridgeport and Back of the Yards to Gage Park. By 1920, Gage Park had 13,692 residents; most of them were Bohemians and Poles who worked in the Union Stock Yard. The Colony, built-in 1925 in a classical Gothic design at 5842 South Kedzie, was one of three movie theatres supported by the community. As national churches were built, Slavic immigrants were drawn to the area. Slavic Catholics founded St. Simon’s in 1926, while Lithuanians founded the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary church, the largest Lithuanian parish outside of Lithuania, in 1927. Poles also established St. Turibius Parish in 1927.

Ben F. Bohac, a Czech American, founded Talman Home Federal Savings and Loan. It is one of Illinois’ greatest savings and loan banks, at 51st and Talman Streets, in 1922. In 1992, Talman merged with LaSalle National Bank. Gage Park, which is surrounded on three sides by railroads, attracted major enterprises such as Central Steel and Wire Company, World’s Finest Chocolate, and Royal Crown Bottling Company.

The Marquette Park–Gage Park region became a testing ground for open habitation for African Americans in the 1960s. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a rally to Marquette Park, where he was met with violent opposition from counterdemonstrators, most of whom were Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party followers. Despite widespread opposition, including a boycott by white parents, Gage Park High School was founded in 1972. The Orange Line Elevated rapid transit line, which connects the Loop to Midway Airport, two miles from Gage Park, was completed in 1993. As a result, property values increased by 70%, from $50,000 in 1985, which further experienced a hike to $86,450 in 1996.

Several neighborhood organizations were established in the 1970s and 1980s to help stabilize the area and ease ethnic animosity. The Southwest Community Congress tried to strengthen race relations with surrounding neighborhoods. At the same time, the Southwest Parish and Neighborhood Federation worked to curb real-estate blockbusting tactics and maintain middle-class stability. 

The Southwest Community Development Corporation, a subsidiary, attempted to revive the area commercially. Gage Park has maintained its middle-class status while becoming more racially diverse thanks to these efforts.